[outleradam]

I like XBMC because it's a media center. It's not twittering what you watch. I could care less what other people are watching. I want a media center which does not have the capability to broadcast that I just watched Hairy Porker, the sorcerer's bone.

[dc2447]

An example of a particular RSS based app created in "seconds" by a non-programmer would be most welcome. I suspect you exaggerate ever so slightly, but we're definitely wanting to improve that side of XBMC, and if there's a nice solution available, we're interested. Perhaps you could describe clearly how it works?

Cheers,
Jonathan

Hi Jonathan - I'd be more than happy to show you an example or two so you can judge for yourself.

The very first app I did for boxee was sommafm - which is a selection of online radio streams, helpfully for us they procide a shoutcast version of every stream.

Now we could simply add these to to sources.xml in xbmc but for the average joe foring up vim to edit xml probably isn't that user friendly.

Boxee's apps are either python based as per xbmc or RSS based. So lets do the somafm app in RSS

http://pastebin.com/m24168d97

Hopefully self explanatory. This will provide a thumbnail for sommafm under Apps => Music which when clicked will provide a menu of all the streams listed with a thumbnail. Clicking the the thumb starts the stream.

Second example, Spiketv

The second thing that Boxee allows with RSS feeds is to parse the RSS and serve up the <enclosure> media if the enclosure media is a video.

Here is the RSS feed for spiketv http://pastebin.com/f23459268

What is cool here is that we not only used the RSS provided by the spiketv wesbite but we came up with some yahoo pipes feeds for the TV shows too.

So, how to install apps.

Boxee has repositories. These are also xml served over http.

Here is mine

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1134165/boxee/index.xml

Boxee users add that url in their settings (or if you provide good apps Boxee add your repo by default) and adding a new app is as simple as navigaing to apps => add

I don't use Boxee anymore (I use xbmc) so I may be a little rusty.

If anything isn't clear, shout.

[jmarshall]

Thanks - most appreciated.

I *think* that XBMC has support for the first boxee feed of yours - at least if I interpreted the commit elupus did a couple of weeks back. You still have to manually enter the URL ofcourse (though you can do this via the UI). Not sure if it'll work for the second or not.

I hadn't thought of adding RSS feeds via the addons system - will discuss with others to see if we can do it in the same way, as that's a nice idea.

In both cases it appears your "app" here is effectively a directory service (i.e. equivalent to plugins on XBMC, but you can do it all on the server instead of parsing stuff using python)?

Cheers,
Jonathan

[dc2447]

Thanks - most appreciated.

I *think* that XBMC has support for the first boxee feed of yours - at least if I interpreted the commit elupus did a couple of weeks back. You still have to manually enter the URL ofcourse (though you can do this via the UI). Not sure if it'll work for the second or not.

I hadn't thought of adding RSS feeds via the addons system - will discuss with others to see if we can do it in the same way, as that's a nice idea.


Cheers,
Jonathan

It's good to hear this may get looked at. Boxee has apps added literally daily in this fashion.

In both cases it appears your "app" here is effectively a directory service (i.e. equivalent to plugins on XBMC, but you can do it all on the server instead of parsing stuff using python)?

Correct. It's a daunting task even for someone who knows python to create a simple app with a menu and a few pieces of content. On Boxee it *just works*.

I also forgot to mention that even if you don't want to create an rss app you can add rss feeds with valid enclosures via the Boxee website. You login and paste the url of the feed you want on your Boxee setup and it automagically apears in 'My Feeds' on your Boxee homepage.

I'm not suggesting XBMC offers that kind of service but it's an interesting way of adding content to Boxee.

[theuni]

Confirmed that the xml works (partly) in xbmc. As a test, enter this in your sources.xml

rss://dl.getdropbox.com/u/1134165/boxee/spiketv.xml

It looks like browsing the dir is all that will work because presumably boxee opens the <link> with its browser, which we don't support.

I'll look into what it would take to support these in a more obvious way, i suspect not much. The web stuff could then magically work if/when we integrate a browser.

TheUni

[dc2447]

Confirmed that the xml works (partly) in xbmc. As a test, enter this in your sources.xml

rss://dl.getdropbox.com/u/1134165/boxee/spiketv.xml

It looks like browsing the dir is all that will work because presumably boxee opens the <link> with its browser, which we don't support.

I'll look into what it would take to support these in a more obvious way, i suspect not much. The web stuff could then magically work if/when we integrate a browser.

TheUni

Very cool.

Adding a single line to sources.xml until such times as we could install these apps in an easier fashion would be fine. Maybe including snippits of xml in small files in sources.xml?

As for the link issue, I don't know enough about the internal workings of xbmc or boxee but it's basically iterating through the rss feed and generating a menu of watch-able items on the fly, that's all. Apologies if I am stating the obvious.

I think this would be an amazing feature for xbmc. The ability to reuse every single Boxee RSS app on XBMC would be immense. And whilst it's not a competition between xbmc and boxee the old argument of Boxee = better for online feeds and xbmc better for playback / scraping would be debunked.

If there is anything at all I can do to help here please letme know.

[coolspot18]

I like XBMC because it's a media center. It's not twittering what you watch. I could care less what other people are watching. I want a media center which does not have the capability to broadcast that I just watched Hairy Porker, the sorcerer's bone.

So true... So true.

[mattohara]

@OP:

and i keep coming back to xbmc. i'm on mac, not linux, but most of what i say should hold true. the scraping's the best, the playback's the best, the speed's the best, the support and community is the deepest.

plex has great media content and a mac-oriented photo and mp3 bit but is incredibly slow for me. boxee is getting all kinds of press and has the same media content but i could care less about the social aspect and it's not nearly as customizable.

all i really want from xbmc (that doesn't exist already) is automatic library updates and more free online content plugins (hulu et al). i can live without itunes/iphoto but they would be nice bonuses. if you try boxee you're just downstream a few notches and it's evident in day-to-day use.

[veysey]

I was in a similar situation to yourself. And made the same decision. And am happy with the choice. One thing I'll throw out there in case you haven't seen it: You can setup the launcher plugin to launch huludesktop, which can in turn be made to use the lirc remote.

Not as nice as a built-in XMBC solution, but it works OK if you find yourself wanting the content.

[deanhash]

I have been using Boxee and testing it for six and a half months but during that time I have also been using and testing XBMC on my ATV and I have come to the proverbial fork in the road. Boxee has issued it's first Beta release for every platform except ATV the very one I use to test it. They released a closed beta release for the Windows and Linux platform on December 7, 2008 and on January 7, 2009 at CES they opened it to the public ( the Beta ). Needles to say this pissed off the testers of the ATV KIND because to this day they still do not have a release for the Apple TV. So this brings me to my question "Is Boxee going to be the Microsoft of the set top box market because they do not seem to care who has got them where they are today and by that I mean the Apple TV community. Do not get me wrong I still contribute to XBMC and as a matter of fact I seem to think the XBMC team cares more about the Apple TV community more then the Boxee team ever did so as far as I am concerned I think I will stick close to the XBMC model, besides XBMC is way more cool!

[Elbert]

I guess Forum.boxee.tv is a better place to find out what their future plans are.

Edit: they have a thread open at their forums with a how-to for getting the beta working on a aTV
http://forum.boxee.tv/showthread.php?t=1...eta+issues

[Cometer]

I too was in the same situation as the op.

As I also strived to setup a media center that would be both powerful and easy to use for the non techy people I'll have to admit that so far there are no perfect solutions. As I'm in Windows 7 I've decided to make a mix a Windows Media Center + XBMC + Boxee. Also good to remind that I'm outside the US so some content as its limitations.

Anyway regarding Boxee vs XBMC

Both are pretty similar but their strenghts are different.

Boxee pros:

* Great integration with online services. The best I've ever experienced.
Social networking can be great if you have a bunch of buddies to share views and experiences of the things you watch/hear
* Lots and lots of applications
* Stable for a beta and DXVA support out of box in Windows
* As XBMC can fetch information on TV shows, movies and so on


cons :
* Opensubtitles integration isn't as good as XBMC one. This alone can be reason enough to turn down Boxee as the main movie player if you have many foreign movies.
* Little GUI customization
* Limited capabilities outside its main purpose. (media center integrated with online services)


XBMC
pros :

* Integrates with online services but this are community projects that most of the time don't have the same end-user quality of Boxee applications. But you'll get plugins like SABNZBD integration and other stuff that may be useful for the more experienced users. IF you know what you're doing it can be quite powerful.
* Probably one of the most cutomizable Media center software out there.
* XBMC looks are the best you can get on this type of media center software.
* Great integration with Opensubtitles

cons :
* No hardware acceleration out of box in Windows. But the community is working on it
* Far less online applications
* Higher learning curve than boxee

Problem is with those that want to build an all in one media center solution there is STILL no solution that can give you everything.

This is how I setup mine.
Created links to launch XBMC or Boxee in Windows Media Center. And use a media center remote control.
Windows Media Center is for MOST of my parents daily use that needs to be easy enough. My mother will probably use this just to hear music and watch some photos and perhaps some TV. In that regard Windows 7 Media Center is good enough (and neat). Windows 7 Media Center also has Internet TV but for that I use Boxee. It suits my father needs to watch Justin.TV (you know those blocked sports games). Or social networking stuff that he finds enjoyable. For movie and TV shows XBMC will be the main program. I usually don't use subtitles but my fathers needs them so the overall better integration with opensubtitles was a big part of the reason to pick XBMC over Boxee. My only issue now is that I want DXVA support on XBMC. But that will soon be solved.

[mcborzu]

Tried boxee out, pretty nice app. Still a huge XBMC guy but I can see the what they are trying to do with their project.

On a side note-How popular is Boxee? I always see it mentioned in online tech sites/articles but after I downloaded it then check their forums I was surprised to see that they are pretty vacant. Only like 20-40 people viewing threads, XBMC always have like 200 just in general help. I know forums arent the best indication of popularity but still I thought it was a little sparse considering all the hype it gets.

[outleradam]

it's gaining popularity through slandar, basically proponents are calling XBMC old news and boxee the grown up version of XBMC.

I seriously can't believe that they would take free shit and put a new skin, a couple of integrated apps, and a price tag on it, then call it the grown up version. I'm going to make a skin for boxee and call it the grown up version of boxee.

Seriously, it's the kiddy version of XBMC. OMFG lets tweet about what we're watching, it's so pretty!

[natethomas]

Tried boxee out, pretty nice app. Still a huge XBMC guy but I can see the what they are trying to do with their project.

On a side note-How popular is Boxee? I always see it mentioned in online tech sites/articles but after I downloaded it then check their forums I was surprised to see that they are pretty vacant. Only like 20-40 people viewing threads, XBMC always have like 200 just in general help. I know forums arent the best indication of popularity but still I thought it was a little sparse considering all the hype it gets.

The difference, my guess, is that boxee is an acceptable application in the united states. It's primary function is to view streaming media. XBMC's primary function is to view media on a local box, which almost by necessity at least implies ripping DVDs, which is illegal in the US. Even the XBMC method of playing DVDs is arguably a version of breaking encryption, which, once again, is illegal. No major tech news agency really WANTS to admit to doing something illegal, so they skirt the issue by talking about Boxee.

Mind you, this is all theorizing on my part. I could be totally off base. But it's funny in that it always makes for pretty repetitive demos in the US, where the only video you ever see is Big Buck Bunny.